Album Review: Tim Barry 40 Miler

A dominance of country over folk, a happier vibe than some of his older material, a message of “keep it real, yo,” and a willingness to make fun of himself all define Tim Barry's fifth solo album.

Barry, who lives in a shed without running water and rides the rails for a hobby, is back with 13 tracks of some of the finest singalong stuff you'll hear out of any of the Revival Tour types. Being broke, being on the road and trying to live an honest sort of a life all feature heavily here (as you'd imagine). Respectively, Bankers Dilemma (I'm insolvent and it's not as bad as it could be), Hobo Lullaby (yup, the song made famous by Woody Guthrie) and Shed Song (I'm happy with this simple life; or am I?) are the best examples of each theme.

He's not a folksy sloganeer by nature, but the title track itself has a truckload of lines that, on their own, deserve to be printed up, handed to anybody who plays music and recited anytime the question of “what's the point of this?” comes up. How about this: “If you can't play, then dance instead. Music should sound like escape, not rent.” And when should you give up? Before you're at this stage: “...songs about writing songs/and albums over 40 minutes long/and broke up bands on their third reunion tour.” Take those to bed with you, anybody who's in a band.

On the whole, there aren't many surprises here, but this is a great collection of simple, honest, urgent, soulful tunes by a chap who's doing this for the best of reasons.